Topo USA 8.0 National Edition
| Topo USA 8.0 National Edition |
And it's by far the best value for the price--EVERYTHING needed comes in-the-box for the purchase price, including:
Core FunctionsMap Controls The maps can be controlled using a variety of methods, including the traditional push-button zooming, which drills in/out while keeping the map exactly centered. Drag and Zoom CursorAlso, holding down the left mouse button enables you to drag and zoom, left-to-right, across the map, and moving the mouse in the same manner but in the opposite direction zooms out. 3-D Map Views and Flyovers See the terrain in vivid detail using the 3-D map views and controls. These realistic views also retain the various elements you add to your customized maps--trails, MapNotes, GPS waypoints, and Draw objects. The split-screen framework lets you see 2-D and 3-D maps side by side, with linked Draw tools that move and update in tandem. Now you can also grab the 3-D map views using the image grabber tool and scroll rapidly through 3-D views with great precision. The 3-D software engine has been completely rebuilt for this new version. Find DeLorme employs several powerful search capabilities within the software. The first is a simple box called QuickSearch where you type common requests including towns, cities, lakes, mountains, lat/lons, ZIP codes, street addresses and many more to receive the quickest possible matches. The Advanced Search helps clarify more complex searches to provide the best possible results. Enhancements to Find with version 8.0 include the ability to perform searches based on multiple criteria: address, intersection, place name, natural feature, coordinates, places of interest, and more. Profile The Profile tool lets you click on a route, line object, or body of water and see the elevation gain between one point and the next. Ideal for bikers, hikers, and large rigs wanting to know the elevation on their trips. It also gives you the ability to import heart rate, speed, and cadence data from GPS wrist computers, and graph them with the terrain profile for evaluation of athlete performance. Draw Add MapNotes; draw your own circles, polygons, and squares; measure the area of your draw objects--even draw in your own roads and route on them--these are amazingly powerful draw tools for the money. Measure The Measure Tool lets you measure linear distance and area on the map based on the units chosen in the Display tab of the Options dialog box. Draw polygons on the map and see the square footage or acreage of plots of land. Info Right-click on the map to learn more about what's underneath your cursor. Lat/Lon, names of streets and bodies of water--even local radio station information--can be viewed in this manner. Moreover, the bottom toolbar of the software displays a continuously updated readout of what's underneath your cursor. Attaching Images, Web URLs, and Other Documents Add your own images, live Web URLs, and diagrams and documents to the maps. Embed photos and diagrams showing fleet personnel what they will find at each location. Embed URLs next to your important stops on the maps for easy access when additional information is needed or updated online. Image Tagger Preserve a record of exactly where you took your digital photos--all you need is a GPS track. The enlargeable thumbnail images appear on your map exactly where you took them on your trip.
Ease of UseE-Z Nav Toolbar This handy toolbar runs along the top of the interface and offers access to commonly needed options, including GPS settings, the Measure tool, MapShare and Routing functions. Keyboard Shortcuts New is the ability to set your own keyboard shortcut preferences for optimum control when using GPS. The new key-bindings function is very powerful and advanced so you can design your ideal in-vehicle navigation solution to your own personal specifications. NetLink Netlink is your online link to DeLorme for important technical support messages, as well as the place where you select the download areas you want for use within the software. RoutingRouting on Roads or Trails Create automatic road routes to get you to the trailhead, then use automatic trail routing to bring on your hikes. You can create routes from the Route tab or by simply right-clicking on the map and setting your Starts, Stops, and Finish points. Personalized Routing with Address Book New is the ability to create and save commonly-used names for places you visit often, such as "home," work," or "Dad's." Once these names are assigned, the routing Starts, Stops, and Finishes also display these names making retrieval easy for repeated usage. Customize routes using your own names and save them within MapShare for others to see--they'll be amazed. You can also include up to 200 names from your address book to be recognized using this system. Add Local Roads to Routing A DeLorme exclusive, this is the best way to update local roads when new developments are planned or added between DeLorme software releases. This tool is located within the Draw tab and lets you draw in the road segment, connecting it to another local road within the database. Assign a name, save it, and when you create automatic routes, the software is smart enough to include these new local roads in the routing calculations and also update the directions. Map & Travel InformationNEW! Points-of-Interest New to Topo USA with the release of version 8.0 are 4 million places of interest from DeLorme's Street Atlas USA, including restaurants, lodgings, retailers, and businesses of all kinds. Also new are backcountry locations from the DeLorme Atlas & Gazetteers with icons for boat ramps, unique natural features, fishing and hunting locations, and more. Map Data Topo USA offers the best of both worlds--the latest USGS digital topographic data and the latest DeLorme street network. Unlike the scanned raster USGS paper maps used in many other topographic software products, this unique DeLorme vector data blending assures you are working with the latest information. Many scanned USGS quad maps were made decades ago, so the roads shown are oftentimes outdated or nonexistent. Topo USA's vector -- or intelligent -- blended data enables smart searching, better labeling, and many other powerful software capabilities. Data Download Dollars--FREE Map, Chart, and Imagery Downloads In addition to the enhanced topographic and street maps on the included Topo USA 8.0 DVD-ROM, your purchase entitles you to $40 in new Data Download Dollars, good for supplementary data as Web downloads. Options include USGS 1:24,000 quad maps, NOAA nautical charts, and the following imagery types: color aerial, black-and-white aerial, high-resolution cities (color aerial), and 10-meter color satellite. Data Download Dollars and the ability to purchase each dataset separately replaces the former Aerial Data Packets, that combined three data type together. Now you get only what you really need. Visit the Netlink tab of your DeLorme software to supplementary datasets. GPS Features
GPS Waypoint Exchange Use the automatic route generation tool to create the route you want without hand-drawing each object. Then exchange this track log to your handheld GPS receiver and bring the information with you into the field. Bring your field data back into the desktop software from your GPS receiver to see where you have been. Supports Garmin, Magellan, and most other NMEA-compliant receivers. GPS Log Playback Create a route along your favorite trail, right-click on the trail and Save as GPS Log File. Open the GPS tab, switch to 3-D mode, and play back the log file showing various icons moving along the trail. It's as close to being there as one can get without actually leaving your home. Geocaching Support Topo USA supports popular geocaching site file formats .gpx and .loc, which makes geocaching more fun than ever. New with version 8.0 is the ability to import extended descriptions and hints from .gpx files found online at geocaching.com, also transportable to the PN-Series GPS Devices. Printing & SharingPrint crisp color or black & white maps that you control to best match what is seen on screen. Print maps including the elevation profile or simply print the elevation profile by itself. New in this version, print the split-screen maps showing your various datasets and Draw objects. MapShare MapShare makes it easy to share your customized maps and directions with family, friends, and business associates. You create exactly the content you want and then post within our online MapShare library, which includes private administrative tools for you to manage. Similar to some of the better online photo resources, MapShare allows you to provide controlled access to your important maps without worrying about email and spam filters. Average Rating:
 Rating: - Forever mediocre, but still best in its class.I've been buying DeLorme map products for years - and with each passing year, my love/hate relationship tilts a little more toward hate. My reasons for buying DeLorme Topo are perhaps a bit different than most of its users. I am not an avid hiker, camper or outdoors person. I use Topo USA 8 and its predecessor to scout out good locations for landscape photography. Pretty simple stuff - and Topo doesn't handle it very well, but it is still the best in its class as far as similarly priced commercial products are concerned. The GUI is, putting it charitably, weird. DeLorme insists on using its own graphical interface, eschewing ordinary Windows conventions. At the bottom of the screen are a series of tabs, many of which are of no interest to the casual user such as myself. Fortunately, the tabs can be managed to meet user desires. Everything is cumbersome. If computers had existed in the 1930s, the DeLorme Topo USA 8.0 interface would be right at home. However, this is 2009 and even the act of performing a simple location find is a burden. Zooming in an out of the map is accomplished with a bizarre set of icons, controls or drags on the screen.. The screen display is divided into three parts: an overview map, a default 2-D map and a switchable panel that provides a 3-D view if chosen. You can choose from three different map styles, only two of which are provided with the program. The instructions on using each of these panels is buried somewhere in the abbreviated help file. I've figure out enough of how to use the 3-D function to use it for my purposes. DeLorme has become annoying in pushing extra-cost options at the customer, whether it is their handheld GPS map device, aerial imagery or other data. I am sure all these things are useful to some people, but I wish there were a way to disable all the advertising prompts, toggles and switches. Map accuracy is better than Microsoft Streets & Trips 2009, but it is still not the greatest. A few days ago, I wanted to find a vantage point for photographing a lock and dam on the Upper Mississippi. It took me a while to figure out that the lock and dam which stretch across several hundred feet of the river are shown on the map as only a single dot. As I noted above, my use of the product is a bit unusual and perhaps hikers and others will find the product more useful. Things are not helped by the failure to provide any worthwhile printed information. The help file is sparse, to say the least. The program is relatively stable under Vista 64-bit. On the whole, I think Google Maps are increasingly more suitable for my specific needs and, of course, are free. This is the second or third version of DeLorme Topo I've purchased. The interface has remained essentially the same: awful. The only other product of this kind at this price point that I've seen was worse, so DeLorme wins by default. But as I said, Google maps is a strong contender. It offers topographical maps for many locations. I would advise caution for the first-time buyer of DeLorme Topo USA. It may not be a product you'll find usable. DeLorme itself offers a 30-day Satisfaction Guaranty. I don't know if this extends to products that aren't purchased directly from them. Jerry Rating:  - TOPO USA 8.0This is a great product! I do a lot of hiking and off-roading out here in the Big Bend region of Texas, and have installed this product on my little netbook and take it with me whenever I go into the back-country. I still take my paper topo maps with me, but the Topo 8.0 is what I turn to first! Rating:  - Hideous User Interface and no ManualFortunately, I did not buy this software package as it came as part of a hardware/software bundle for the PN-40 (which, so far, appears to be a great GPS device). I purchased the PN-40 to help keep track of my walking/hiking/kayaking journeys and have been very eager to put it to good use. Topo USA version 8.0, however, has been nothing but a poorly designed headache - I've now spent many hours trying to figure out what, exactly, it is capable of doing and trying to get it to connect with the PN-40. While the connection process is quite simple, the usability of the software is a completely different matter - without question, it is one of the most poorly designed and user-unfriendly applications I've come across recently. Considering that this is version 8.0 only makes the horrible user interface problem more apparent - didn't DeLorme bother to subject this application to real users prior to its release? I've now spent most of the day trying to figure how, exactly, Topo USA 8.0 works but the awful user interface only makes things worse with time - not better. The program lacks many, many "features" common to most other software applications and features are buried behind obscure menus/tabs whose functions are not apparent. Instead of having the menu bar found at the top of almost all software applications, DeLorme made a very bizarre (and stupid) decision to not include one - instead, they only provide an unknown number of meaningless icons that require users to place their mouse of each in order to get a brief description - even that, however, doesn't truly explain what each function does. Many other functions are buried on the bottom half of the application's window and are hidden behind a large number of tabs - which are also meaningless to the beginning Topo User; these include tabs for "draw", "route", "NetLink", etc. There are two presentations of the map you're using (why, there are two, I still haven't been able to determine) and unlike most other programs, they don't function the same way - clicking on an object should allow one to edit it (most other programs allow you to right click, select "properties", and then edit the object. This does not happen in Topo USA 8.0. Zooming and panning the maps is also painfully slow (on a Vista 64-bit machine, no less): the only way to zoom in is to use the "Data Zoom" buttons located in the upper-right corner - is is NOT possible to enter a exact zoom amount in the box and there are no magnifying glasses commonly found in other software applications. Panning is another hassle - many other applications use a hand icon that allows users to "grab" a map (or other object) in order to move it around the screen - Topo USA has no such function. Like other elements of Topo USA 8.0, zooming and panning are painfully slow. One of the obnoxious things that the designers did to try and overcome the horrendous user interface problems, is to have very annoying pop-up boxes show up to "explain" how each feature works. While it is possible to shut off many of these, they remain very annoying and would be completely unnecessary if the designers bothered to great a decent user interface. I would not recommend this program to others. If you get stuck with it when you buy a DeLorme GPS, you'll probably waste a lot of time trying to figure out how to use it. Rating:  - Great for outdoor navigation:I'm not an outdoors expert, but I do quite a lot of day hiking and backpacking in the Sierra Nevadas. I obtained this software with my purchase of the PN-40 Delorme Earthmate. I think both are great products. Personally, I really like the Delorme Topos, visually. They aren't as detailed as what you can get from other places, but I prefer the simpler maps. There's less clutter, and more of what I really want. All I really need on my topo is elevation information that is readable and information regarding the major features that surround me, such as peaks and bodies of water. That what I use to navigate. I've heard some people complain about the detail, but as far as I'm concerned, less is more. I've used the USGS versions, and I very much prefer the Delorme Topos. I've heard some people complain about the complexity of the software, but I haven't really found that to be the case. The software does use a layering metaphor, kind of like Adobe Photoshop, but I haven't found it to be too troubling thus far. I struggled for a bit trying to get the right zoom detail matched with the scaling for printouts, but after a few tries, I figured it out. It's nice to be able to put the coordinate grid that you like to use on the maps you print out. I use Lat/Lon. So, when I print the maps, I try to get a good zoom and scale combination that makes it easy to calculate my coordinates without too much difficult math or measuring. This is pretty easily done. I think this is a great product, even if you don't purchase the GPS from Delorme. However, with the Delorme GPS, this software and hardware combination make for a powerful navigating tool, and add a lot of fun to smaller day hikes. For longer, more difficult backpacking, I search online for GPX files for my backpacking adventure, upload them to Delorme TOPO USA, edit the file as needed with information that's important to me, then export the whole route to my GPS. It's all very easy and very useful. For my day hikes, I have a file called AllHikes.tpx. Everytime I go out on a day hike, record my track with the GPS unit, set waypoints for interesting points on the trail, and then when I return home, I upload the entire track into the TOPO USA software. Then, I upload my pictures from the hike right onto the recorded track. TOPO USA looks at the time that I took the photo and matches it to the time on the recorded track, and puts a link automatically on the track exactly where the photo was taken. Very cool. At the end of the day I have a TOPO USA file that contains all my day hike information, time, miles, elevation plus pictures I took along the way. And it's not even difficult to do. Just hike and record. . . . I gave the product only 4 stars because I think the user interface could still be easier to use. The GUI seems a little scattered to me and takes a bit of time to get used to. But once you do, you will really enjoy the software. If you are a real map nerd, however, you might be disappointed with the detail of the Delorme topos. I also have to mention, with regard to GPS devices, they really are a lot of fun. I like the pn-40, but my guess is that almost any GPS device would be pretty useful. That said, a map and compass works just fine. I always carry both. The GPS is really a luxury. I really researched a lot of GPS devices before I bought the PN-40, and, truth be told, I'm sure almost any rugged GPS with plenty of battery power would work just fine. The nicest thing about the PN-40, in my view, is that it comes with the TOPO USA 8. That really is very nice. You can get the spiffy topos on you GPS unit, at no extra charge. 
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